TAA Staff

Amanda Galbraith is a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. For eighteen years, she served as an art educator with Bartlett City Schools in Tennessee. Galbraith has served on the Tennessee Department of Education’s subject matter expert committee, two standards revision committees, a textbook and instructional materials advisory panel, and numerous curriculum-development teams. She has received the Tennessee Art Education Association’s West Tennessee Art Educator of the Year award two times—in 2011 and 2013. In 2019, Galbraith was named the Tennessee Art Education Association’s Art Educator of the Year. She is a frequent presenter at local, state, and national conferences.

As a middle school choral and theatre director in Knoxville, Tennessee, Kami Lunsford helps students to find personal success and belonging. Her ensembles have performed in nine states alongside artists like Chris Blue and Wilco. She was the Tennessee Teacher of the Year in 2021, twice named Knox County Schools Teacher of the Year, and she was inducted into the University of Tennessee’s Educator Hall of Honor. She has been a consultant and panelist for the United States and Tennessee Departments of Education, the Smithsonian Institute, and the Country Music Association. She has served on the TAA Foundation Board as TAA Alumni Association president and hosted the “TAA Talks” podcast. She credits TAA and the exceptional teachers in her rural, West Tennessee upbringing for her passion to change lives through arts education.

Libby Lynch is currently the art teacher at Humboldt Junior and Senior High School. She started her career in art education with the Shelby County School System after receiving degrees from Union University, the University of Memphis, and the Memphis College of Art. She became a member of the Tennessee Art Education Association in 1991 and has served in various leadership positions in the organization to ensure that as many children as possible have access to quality art instruction. In 2004, she was named Educator of the Year by the Tennessee Art Education Association and Sponsor of the Year by the National Art Honor Society. In addition to her educational and leadership roles in art education, Lynch is also a 500-hour Registered Yoga Teacher and owner of Main Fit Yoga, a studio that explores the connection between the mindfulness of yoga and that of the arts.

Connie Marley is retired after teaching twenty years at Freedom Middle School in Franklin, Tennessee. During her successful tenure at the school, her choirs consistently won superior ratings at local and state choral festivals. Each year, her students were well represented in honor choirs at the local, regional, and national levels as well. Prior to her time in Franklin, Marley held teaching positions in Georgia, Texas, and the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools. Marley is also a past president of the Middle Tennessee Vocal Association and has served the organization in several other capacities. Currently, she is an active member of the American Choral Directors Association.

Before her retirement in May of 2008, Susan Ramsay was a music specialist at Franklin Elementary School in the Franklin Special Schools District and was named Teacher of the Year for that system. She has received National Board Certification in music and holds degrees from Peabody College and Middle Tennessee State University. Ramsay is past president of the Middle Tennessee Orff-Schulwerk Association and the Middle Tennessee Elementary Music Educators Association and has served as regional representative on the National Board of Trustees for AOSA. She has presented at Orff and Kodály national conferences and for the National Association for Music Education (NAfME). She maintains an active schedule of performances as a storyteller and as a musician, and has been connected with the Tennessee Arts Academy since its inception.

Belmont State Grant Administrator Jeff Kirk is a professor of music in the School of Music at Belmont University, where he teaches courses in advanced contemporary arranging and directs Jazz Band I, Belmont’s premier jazz ensemble. Kirk has degrees from the University of Memphis, Belmont University, and the University of Miami. He has extensive recording experience, including television jingles for several local and national retail stores. He has toured with Pure Prairie League and Maynard Ferguson and has been the headline act for Big Orange Jazz Festival, Kool Jazz Festival, and many more. He has also opened for such acts as Bobby McFerrin, Stanley Turrentine, and Mark Murphy. For his album Clouds, Kirk was nominated in two Grammy categories—best jazz album and best jazz instrumental solo. His new album project for 88 Grand Productions, Come Thou Fount, is a collaborative effort with keyboardist Russell Davis.

Sybil Levine is a Nashville native, a string musician by nature and nurture, and an avid contributor to the nonprofit sector. An Oberlin College graduate, Levine writes grants for nonprofits that have yielded millions in funds for various clients including individual donors, private foundations, and state and federal entities. Levine has contributed to the financial stability of her clients, whose areas of advocacy include the arts, arts education, mental health and wellness, restorative justice, healthcare, homelessness, and more.

Jesse Strauss is a grant writer and classical percussionist based in Nashville, TN. As a musician and lifetime music appreciator, he has enjoyed writing for a variety of arts and cultural organizations. Strauss has worked for the Nashville Symphony since 2018 and now serves as their Grants Manager. He is, however, equally experienced at fundraising for social and human services organizations. Strauss has procured federal, state, and private funding in service areas as diverse as mental health, childcare and early education, restorative justice, and healthcare. A sampling of other ongoing clients include Fannie Battle Day Home, Musical Mentors Collaborative, Centennial Park Conservancy, Raphah Institute, and Santa Monica Symphony. Last year, he helped raise over $1.5 million dollars for more than 15 nonprofits. Strauss cofounded Make Music Nashville, a free day of music that brings outdoor concerts and participatory musical activities to neighborhoods around the city each year on the summer solstice. He is also the Assistant Artistic Director for the contemporary classical ensemble chatterbird. He holds a Bachelor of Music in Percussion Performance from Belmont University, where he studied under Christopher Norton.

Madeline Bridges is professor emerita of music in the School of Music at Belmont University, where she taught music education and music theory. For fifteen years, she served as School of Music associate dean for academic studies. Bridges also served for twenty-nine years as program director of the Nashville Children’s Choir. She holds numerous music degrees including an EdD in music education from the University of Alabama. Bridges taught music and music education in classrooms from kindergarten through the graduate level and is past president of both the Tennessee Music Education Association and the International Board of Directors of Choristers Guild. She is a member of the Tennessee Music Education Association Hall of Fame and a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Tennessee Chapter of American Choral Directors Association as well as the Joe W. Giles Lifetime Achievement Award from the Tennessee Arts Academy. Bridges currently serves on the Tennessee Arts Academy Foundation Board of Directors.

Joe Giles is founder of the Tennessee Arts Academy and former director of the Arts Education Program of the Tennessee Department of Education. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music education from Austin Peay State University and has done additional study at Peabody College, Middle Tennessee State University, and Fisk University. Giles is past president of the Southern Division of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) and of the National Council of State Supervisors of Music. He taught music in Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools for twenty-two years, has taken choral group son concert tours in Europe, and has received gold and silver medals in international music festivals.

Shirley Hayes feels most fortunate to have been the director of the visual arts component of the Tennessee Arts Academy at its inception. She was among the first three visual art consultants initially hired by the Tennessee Department of Education in 1985 and later became the sole visual art consultant, all under the helm of the state’s fine arts director, Joe Giles. In her role with the state, Hayes conducted visual art workshops for teachers across the state and developed kindergarten through twelfth grade curriculum for the visual arts. Beyond her Tennessee Department of Education consultant work, Hayes’s teaching and professional experience includes eleven years as an art specialist in East Tennessee public schools and one year with a Reggio Emilia preschool. Her nineteen years of university teaching include teaching at Kent State University, Middle Tennessee State University, George Mason University, and Buffalo State College. She holds a doctorate in art education from Pennsylvania State University and degrees in art education from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and East Tennessee State University. As a university educator, Hayes's professional interests included curriculum planning and instructional approaches in elementary and secondary visual art education for pre-service teachers. Specific interests lay in critical and social theory in art education and semiotic interpretation of artworks. Her publications and presentations can be found at international, national, and regional levels. Hayes retired in 2015 and resides near her dream beach in North Carolina.

Linda Singleton McAllister was a founding member of the Tennessee Arts Academy and organized its first Resource Center. She later served as Music Director when the program expanded to include secondary choral and instrumental tracks. McAllister served as music consultant for seven years with the Tennessee Department of Education and enjoyed working to improve arts education in the state, based on the vision of Joe Giles. She left Tennessee in 1993 and is now a retired music educator and choral director from The Academy for Academics and Arts, a K-8 magnet school in Huntsville, Alabama. Her choirs consistently received superior ratings at festivals. Several of her former students are now successful teachers and others have careers in the arts, including Michael Luwoye, who recently played Hamilton on Broadway. After returning to her hometown of Huntsville, McAllister received the prestigious Virginia Hammill Simms Award for contributions to the arts community. She served several times as president of the Huntsville City Choral Directors and after retirement was inducted into the Association’s Hall of Fame. McAllister also served on the national board of the Organization of American Kodaly Educators, was a founding member and president of the Huntsville Master Chorale, and served as vice president of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Melody Hart earned a bachelor of music degree in bassoon performance from Ball State University in Indiana. After graduation she moved to Nashville and worked for Badger-Bogle, Architects as executive assistant and bookkeeper from 1993 to 1998. She then began working with her husband, photographer Scott Schrecker, as office manager and bookkeeper. Hart also played bassoon for the Belmont University orchestra for several years. She plays bassoon with First Baptist Nashville’s sanctuary orchestra, teaches private bassoon lessons in her spare time, and enjoys performing duets with her daughter Sammy, who is a harpist. Hart also enjoys teaching the arts to her son Scotty.